The Story Behind “The Day of Infamy”

December the 7^th, 1941 – Time, around 8 am – Place, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – On this day, this time and at this place took place one of the gravest and the most disastrous attack by a foreign country on the U.S soil. Before 9/11 happened, the “surprise” attack on the Pearl Harbor by the Japanese empire was considered to be the “biggest and the worst terrorist” attack to have happened on American soil. The attack took down one of the biggest battleships of the U.S.A, the U.S.S Arizona. This attack, we can say, literally changed the course of the war as well as of world history, as within 36 hours of the attack, the U.S.A entered the WW II in support of the Allies and played a major part in bringing about the destruction of the “over-confident” Nazi Germany and their beloved “Fuhrer”.

The First World War brought about a great amount of devastation in terms of economy as well as human lives for the countries who participated in the war, especially the U.S.A, who had entered the war late. People, back then, were stirred by idealistic approach; they sought to make the world a better place to live in by entering the war. But after the war, they understood this harsh reality.  And hence the US government didn’t participate in WW II for 2 years, despite constant requests from the then charismatic England P.M., Winston Churchill.

So then if the U.S people were so much against going to war, what now made them enter it? Yes, to some extent, it was the Pearl Harbor attack, but most importantly, it was the Presidential Address given by President Franklin D Roosevelt, which truly steered the nationalist feelings into the hearts of the American people and brought them into the war. The speech, known as the “Day of Infamy”, is probably one of the greatest speeches given in the history of mankind, and what is very intriguing about it is that it was prepared in just 24 hours of the attack. Let us explore the story behind this famous speech….

President Roosevelt heard about the attack at around 12 in the afternoon form the Secretary of Navy, Frank Knox. All, except the President, were surprised at the news of the attack, as both the countries were peacefully discussing the Pacific issue between them at the time. The whole afternoon, the whole defense staff sat along with the President gathering reports of damages to U.S installations, ships and planes in Hawaii. The President then decided that it was time U.S.A took some harsh steps against the Japanese ad decided to enter the war. But for that, he needed the support of the Congress. Hence, he decided to address a joint session of the Congress the next afternoon. Both his speech-writers were not present in Washington D.C. at that moment; hence he took it to himself to write the speech.

His main aim was to stir the nationalist feelings of the Congress so that they approve of him of going into the war. He, unlike his predecessor Woodrow Wilson, who had steered the Congress into WW I by inspiring “idealistic” feelings, decided to keep the speech as short as possible. His Secretary of State, Cordell Hull had recommended him to give a full exposition of Japanese-American relations and how the Japanese had betrayed them. But F.D.R neglected his advice and went on to with his own version. At night, he called his Secretary Grace Tully, to type down the first draft and then he made changes into it, of which the most famous and probably, the most important, the word which became the the instrument of driving the country into war, was that he replaced  “world history” with “infamy” and also “simultaneously” with “sudden”. Here is an excerpt from the speech, probably the part which made it most famous. (The original words are written in bracket after the corrected word):

“Yesterday, December seventh, 1941, a date which will live in infamy (world history), the United States of America was suddenly (simultaneously) and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan………”

There were actually a total of three drafts made, but he did corrections only in the first draft. The only part which he didn’t write was an addition by one of his aides, Harry Hopkins. He suggested a next-to-last sentence that evolved in:

“With confidence in our armed forces – with the unbounding determination of our people – we will gain the inevitable triumph – so help us God.”

This was probably the second best part of the speech. In the speech, he told about how the country was constantly trying to maintain peace with the Japanese and how they had utterly betrayed them. The issue was now of nationalist importance, the world was watching how the country reacts to such a grave attack, it raised questions on their military strength. All these answers were needed to be given. And to give these answers, war was inevitable. Such was the impact of Roosevelt’s speech, that the Congress passed the Declaration of War on the Japanese in just 30 minutes of the delivery of speech.

The reading draft of the speech was considered to have been lost, but it was found later in the Senate Records in 1984, 43 years after the speech was delivered and the First Draft of the speech along with the correction remains conserved in the Roosevelt Memorial in the U.S.A. Such was the importance of that event in Roosevelt’s mind that even being not able to walk properly due to some problem in one leg, he climbed up the dais of the Congress on his own to give the most important speech of his career.

Such is the gravity of the speech that President George. W. Bush, in his Presidential Address after the 9/11 attack mentioned this speech and said that people really need to remember the speech and rally behind the war against terror.

“The Day of Infamy” will probably go down in the annals of history as the speech that wholly changed the course of how the world is shaped today. It is still regarded by many, including me, as the greatest political speech in the history of mankind.